The invention relates generally to the field of inspection techniques and, more particularly, to automated inspection techniques employed in a manufacturing environment.
In a manufacturing environment, it may be desirable to inspect a work piece either before, during, or after the work piece is manufactured to ensure that the work piece is manufactured without defects. In some cases, a visual inspection of the work piece is sufficient to determine if the work piece has any defects, such as scratches, cracks, or other surface abnormalities. However, in other cases, the size of a defect may be so small that a person making a visual inspection of the work piece will not be able to see the defect.
As a result, various types of inspection systems and methods have been developed to facilitate the inspection of work pieces in a manufacturing environment. In general, these inspection techniques are used to inspect precision parts to identify any errors or surface defects in the work pieces. For example, inspection systems are used to measure the characteristics of a work piece to check for any shape deformations. In addition, inspection systems have been used to measure the dimensions of critical features of the work pieces in order to verify that the dimensions of the work piece are correct. In certain applications, the size of a surface defects may be so small that a high-resolution scanning system is needed to enable the surface defect to be seen and identified. Automated inspection systems have been developed that are capable of automatically scanning a work piece and obtaining the desired information.
However, scanning the entire surface area of a work piece with a high-resolution scanning system may greatly increase the inspection time and, therefore, the production time of the work piece. In addition, the inspection time increases with the size of the work piece. Thus, performing a high-resolution scan of a large work piece may take a considerable amount of time. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a technique that enables a work piece to be scanned for surface defects in a more efficient manner. More specifically, it would be desirable to have a technique that enabled small defects in large work pieces to be identified in a more efficient manner.